‘England must silence Aussie crowd during Ashes’

Former England spinner Graeme Swann swarmed about the buzzing Australian crowd during the Ashes series and said the English must silence Aussie spectators if they would have to gain any chance in the forthcoming prestigious bilateral encounter.

Swann termed the noise at the Gabba in Brisbane as ‘unbelievable’ and even louder than the Real Madrid home supporters.

“The thing you’ve got to do is stop the noise and the easy way to do that in Australia is to get on top of them,” said Swann.

“If you get on top of the team, they’ll quickly turn on their own but obviously the hard bit is getting on top of them,” he said, speaking at the launch of BT Sport’s Ashes coverage in London.

“It’s the most unique wicket in the world, more than Perth, it’s quicker than Perth,” he added.

“It does a lot off the seam, especially early on, so you get a lot of slip catches there. It’s just very alien to anywhere else you bat in the world so teams struggle.”

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan also echoed, “I always think of all the venues, Brisbane to me is the one venue where when you go out to bat you’re not just facing one bowler, you’re facing 40,000.”

“It just feels that the whole of Australia are watching you. They’re the nastiest of the crowds. No idea why but they do seem to know exactly that they can get to the England side,” he further said.